Labour war rebel ousts Blair ally

A labour rebel was last night elected chairman of the parliamentary party - ousting a close aide of Tony Blair.

Former Foreign Office minister Tony Lloyd, who has rebelled on Iraq, tuition fees and foundation hospitals, defeated Ann Clwyd in a vote of Labour MPs.

Mrs Clwyd, the Prime Minister's special envoy to Iraq and MP for Cynon Valley, was axed after just a year in the post after being branded a 'government patsy'.

Mr Lloyd won the vote by a margin of 169 to 156 on a 92 per cent turnout, said a party official.

Mrs Clwyd was said to be 'extremely upset'. Her election loss is the first time in 25 years that a sitting chairman of the PLP has been voted out.

The victory of left-winger Mr Lloyd - a year after Mrs Clwyd pipped him by a similar margin in the last election to the post - was seen in Westminster as a setback for Mr Blair and his expected successor Gordon Brown.

Senior Labour backbencher Dr Ian Gibson said: 'There will be a lot more room for dissent. This is an amazing victory and it illustrates just how much unhappiness there is in the parliamentary party at Downing Street control.

'Ann Clwyd was seen as being far too close to the whips and others. People were booed and hissed if they dared to speak out. We've now got a chair who will stop all that.'

Dr Gibson said the vote also sent a message to Mr Blair that Labour MPs wanted him to quit 'sooner rather than later'.

'People have voted for change in the parliamentary party and now they also want to see it at the national level,' he said.

Another MP told the Daily Mail: 'The PLP will be a lot more troublesome under Tony. It has become more and more difficult to voice dissent, but the sense is that will now change.'

Manchester Central MP Mr Lloyd is seen as a thoughtful critic of the Government. He has a record of rebelling on a range of issues backed by both Mr Blair and Mr Brown, such as university top-up fees and 90-day detention without charge for terror suspects.

Mrs Clwyd insisted she had 'accurately portrayed' the views of Labour MPs in discussions with the party leadership.

She said she had 'made it very clear' that MPs disagreed with Mr Blair's refusal to call for an immediate Israeli ceasefire in the conflict in Lebanon this summer.